Bankhead Highway Motorcade
Army Train Makes 30 Miles a Day
― from American Motorist, November 1920, page 28.
SEVENTY army trucks and automobiles which left Washington June 14 and crossed the continent over the Bankhead highway arrived in San Diego, Calif., the Pacific Coast terminus, on Sunday, October 2.
The Bankhead highway is about 3,450 miles long, which indicates that the
average speed of the convoy was only
about 30 miles for each of the 110 days
consumed in making the trip. The original
itinerary provided that the convoy
would arrive at San Diego September
17, but this schedule could not be
carried out, owing to delays due to bad
road conditions and to weak bridges and
culverts, many of which were broken
down and had to be rebuilt before the
convoy could proceed.
The motor vehicle and camping equipment
used on this trip was delivered at
Los Angeles, from which point it will be
distributed for the use of the Pacific
Coast department of the army. The
twenty-two officers and 162 men who
made the trip have collected data and
gained experience which will be of incalculable
benefit to the country.
The trip has also served to emphasize
the urgent need for a national system of
roads over which troops could be moved
in motor trucks at a greater speed than
30 miles per day.